Geo-Strategic Trend - 140. page

During a visit to Kenya, Li Changchun, the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda chief, gave a speech at Nairobi University encouraging further cooperation between the media in China and Africa. Li proposed to actively implement the “Forum on China–Africa Cooperation–Sharm El Sheikh Action Plan.” He also suggested strengthening direct interactions between Chinese and African media and promoting cooperation in training, technical support, programming, and resource sharing, as well as technology development.

The State’s China Radio International (CRI) signed an agreement with Turkey’s national broadcaster, Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), in Ankara “to strengthen overall cooperation in broadcasting.” According to the agreement, the two parties will exchange programs and increase communications and visits. CRI expects that a rapid implementation of the agreement will facilitate cooperation in other fields.

On April 8, 2011, China News re-published an article from Wen Wei Po a Hong Kong newspaper whose purpose is to support the People’s Republic of China. The article said that “the true purpose” behind the U.S. aircraft carrier’s “disaster relief” trip to Japan was to ask the Tokyo government for 200 million U.S. dollars worth of supplies for 20,000 officers and soldiers.

Xinhua recently reported that the Brazilian, Cambodian, Algerian, Sudanese, and Vietnamese governments, as well as human rights activists, criticized the United State for issuing its Human Rights Report. They suggested that the U.S. is interfering with other countries’ internal affairs to achieve its political goals – under the rosy human rights name. These countries also accused the U.S. of having its own poor human rights record and blamed the U.S. for the exaggerations in the report.

On April 14, 2011, the state development banks of the five BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – signed a framework credit-line agreement to open credit lines to each other in their national currencies. This represents the latest concrete step developing nations have taken to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar.

China Development Bank (CDB) plans to issue around CNY10 billion of yuan-denominated loans this year to other BRICS nations. Most of these loans will fund oil and gas projects. CDB is in talks with Brazilian state-owned Petrobras regarding further loans to the oil company. China and Brazil reached a $10 billion oil-for-loan deal in 2009, under which Petrobras agreed to supply crude oil to China Petrochemical Corp. for 10 years in exchange for funding from CDB. BRICS countries are moving towards mutually trading each others’ currencies, following Russia’s launch of yuan trading in Moscow at the end of 2010.

An article in Study Times, a Central Party School’s voice, points to the quagmire in the U.S.-Middle East relationship. “The U.S. strategy in the Middle East has a big loophole: a double standard toward the Arab countries and Israel, which will ultimately have serious consequences. U.S. Middle East strategy is critically reliant on its allies, who are exactly the regimes involved in the recent waves of protest. After the regime changes, a number of those in the U.S.’s Middle Eastern alliance have expressed dissatisfaction about the U.S. abandoning Mubarak.” “But now more and more voices in the U.S. believe that the U.S. is paying a ‘security cost’ for this alliance, because it created a strong anti-American sentiment, and thus created its own enemies.” “Arab leaders have come to understand that in times of crisis, they cannot save themselves by having good relations with the U.S. and peace agreements with Israel. The change has become more favorable to Iran’s strategic position in the region.” “There are indications that whoever has a close relationship with the U.S. will have a volatile political situation. After Mubarak stepped down, Egypt allowed Iranian naval vessels into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, as a signal that it was distancing itself from the U.S. and Israel.”